James' essence WAS: Re: Choice and Essentialism

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 153986

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "houyhnhnm102" <celizwh at ...> 
wrote:
>
> Magpie:
> 
> 
> > I should say that I think there are places where Sirius 
> > is closer to lying because of his bias.  I took everything 
> > he said about his family with a big grain of salt.  Again, 
> > not that I thought he was lying--his mother, at least, seemed 
> > to live down to everything he said about her.But the way he 
> > so quickly had a bad take on every person he was related to 
> > made me think there was more to their stories.  And of course 
> > I think that was leading up to Regulus.
> 
> houyhnhnm:
> 
> It's hard to discuss whether or not James and Sirius truly 
> hated the Dark Arts when we don't know for sure what makes 
> an Art Dark.  There has been much argument and little 
> consensus over what constitutes Dark Arts.

a_svirn:
Precisely. Also for me at least Sirius's statement rings hollow 
because he tries to find excuse for something inexcusable. It 
doesn't matter whether or not James hated the Dark Arts. His 
aversion to every thing Dark did not give him the licence to act as 
he did. The fact that Sirius brought James's hatred to the Dark Arts 
in such a context makes his claim less believable.